LilianThuram believes Juventus “are not that far away” from being able to win the Champions League.

The Bianconeri lost the quarter-final 4-0 on aggregate to Bayern Munich, who are now favourites for the trophy after destroying Barcelona 7-0 on aggregate.

“Every year teams do everything possible to become stronger and that is part of the life cycle of a squad,” former Juve defender Thuram told Sky Sport Italia.

“Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid do it. I hope that Juve will too. Winning the Champions League is very difficult, because the standard is so high, but I think Juventus are not that far away from being able to achieve it.”

Thuram recently visited the new Juventus Stadium to attend the opening of an exhibition marking 90 years of the Agnelli family involvement in the club.

“I am very happy I got to see the team at the Vinovo training ground, above all those I had played with like Antonio Conte, GianlucaPessotto and Sebastian Giovinco. Some of them were in the Primavera youth team when I was there.

“Juventus have won two consecutive Scudetto titles, so it means they have great players. I do not understand this search for big names.”